Comment by sunahsuh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sunahsuh | Hacker News Reader

The author has a very limited view of the function of universities. There was recent longitudinal study that confirmed what many of us who attended college already know: a vast number of people who attend college don't actually learn anything (particularly in the fields of business, education, social work and communication). [1]

If you get down to it, probably the biggest function of a university is social: if you majored in an engineering discipline, think about your industry connections. How many of them were classmates in undergrad? Elite universities have served as social hubs for the upper class for centuries and the networking function of college and university is invaluable. I'm not using this as an argument for keeping the existing university structure, but if the author really wants to make universities obsolete, he needs to think about how one might facilitate this and other functions. (I haven't even touched the subject of research, which many professors at R1 universities think of as their primary purpose, not teaching. "Teaching" is an unpleasant job you offload on adjuncts and TAs.)

We've had institutions that function like the ones that Matt Welsh envisions for thousands of years. They're called libraries.

[1] http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/18/study_finds_la...

edit: added citation ;)

And yet, the number of people who learned engineering, chemistry, math, physics, computer science, etc. from books alone is dwarfed by the number of people who got such knowledge from schools. Few people have have the mental and emotional fortitude to learn subjects from libraries alone. As you say, there is is something about the social aspect of the classroom and college setting that makes it better for learning than from libraries (or the internet).

To be honest, college was pretty much useless from a social/networking perspective for me. Dev & other social meetups, working and so on have been significantly more useful.

I had a commuter college experience and I bet unless you have the social skills, fortitude and setup (such as living in dorms) to take advantage of the social benefits of college, you wont get many social benefits out of it.

I would agree in that college was useless from a professional networking perspective (moving to a different state compounded my issues).

For me college was primarily personal social growth, professional credentialing, and educational support network. I think the last two of these can be offloaded to the internet for any abstract subject (not anything that requires creating a physical artifact instead of a digital representation).

That's the motivation and challenge of future education platforms: how can you connect to unknown people in the learning space? It's an important point. Making connections in LinkedIn/Twitter/FB is just one click (and being accepted) but new education platforms can make connections based on learning experiences together (in teams) and challenge top universities networking.

Think about that.

He touches on those points in his final paragraph.

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